Foot-deck-based vehicles such as scooters (also known as kick-scooters) are a popular form of transport and recreation. Some of these foot-deck-based vehicles employ lean-to-steer mechanisms for enabling a rider standing on a foot-deck thereof to steer by shifting their center-of-gravity laterally. Such lean-to-steer mechanisms have a hanger supporting two or more wheels (typically the front) that can pivot about an oblique axis and that is biased by a biasing element towards a neutral steering position in which the rotation axes of the front wheels are normal to a longitudinal (central front-to-back) axis of the foot-deck. The biasing force exerted by the biasing element influences how the hanger responds to shifting of a rider's center-of-gravity.
In addition, the rigidity of the hanger can also influence how responsive the lean-to-steer mechanism is. Traditionally, little consideration is given to the stiffness of the hanger, and attention is focused on reducing the manufacturing cost thereof, and the provisioning of some level of flexibility to provide some suspension between the foot-deck and the front wheels. Further, the rigidity of the hanger influences the shock absorbing ability of the hanger when the front wheels encounter an irregularity in a travel surface, such as a rock or an uneven joint between two sidewalk tiles.
It would be beneficial to at least partially address the above concerns and other issues relating to foot-deck-based vehicles.